Judicial Notice Evidence Law

Flashcards covering the definitions, procedural aspects, and rules regarding judicial notice of facts and law based on the Federal Rules of Evidence.

Judicial Notice

The recognition of a fact as true without formal presentation of evidence; it serves as a judicial shortcut and a substitute for proof.

Federal Rule $201(b)$

Defines a fact that may be judicially noticed as one "not subject to reasonable dispute."

Notorious Facts

Facts that are generally known within the trial court’s territorial jurisdiction.

Manifest Facts

Facts that can be accurately and readily determined from sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned.

Ordinary Period of Human Gestation

A fact of common knowledge defined as $280$ days.

Scientific Principles Manifest Facts

Well-established principles, such as radar speed tests, ballistics tests, and paternity blood tests, for which courts no longer require proof of the underlying basis.

Conclusiveness of Paternity Blood Test

A scientific result that is binding on the finder of fact in civil cases where the test indicates the accused father could not have been the parent.

Judge’s Personal Knowledge

Private information known by a judge that cannot be judicially noticed unless it is also commonly known in the community or capable of certain verification.

Mandatory Judicial Notice

Notice that the court is required to take if a party formally requests it and supplies the necessary information.

Judicial Notice by Appellate Court

Notice that may be taken for the first time on appeal; the reviewing court must notice any matter the trial court properly noticed or was obliged to notice.

Federal Rule $201(f)$ (Civil Case)

Provides that a judicially noticed fact is conclusive, and the court shall instruct the jury to accept it as such.

Federal Rule $201(f)$ (Criminal Case)

Provides that the court instructs the jury that it may, but is not required to, accept a judicially noticed fact as conclusive.

Adjudicative Facts

Facts that relate to the parties in a particular case, which are the only facts governed by the Federal Rules regarding judicial notice.

Legislative Facts

Policy facts related to legal reasoning and the lawmaking process that do not have to meet the requirements of indisputability under Rule $201$.

Mandatory Judicial Notice of Law

Includes federal public law, state public law (constitution, statutes, common law), and official regulations of the forum state and federal government.

Permissive Judicial Notice of Law

Includes municipal ordinances, private acts or resolutions of Congress or local state legislatures, and the laws of foreign countries.